BRISBANE, Australia (AP) - Second-seeded Victoria Azarenka won her first WTA Tour title Saturday, overpowering Marion Bartoli of France 6-3, 6-1 in the final of the Brisbane International.

The 19-year-old Belorussian had lost four previous finals on the women’s tour but finished off third-seeded Bartoli, the 2007 Wimbledon finalist, in 1 hour, 11 minutes and completed the tournament without dropping a set.

Azarenka lost last year’s final at the Gold Coast women’s event, which was merged with another Australian men’s tournament - the Australian men’s hardcourt in Adelaide - and replaced by the Brisbane International.

Fernando Verdasco and Radek Stepanek both defeated French opponents on Saturday to reach the men’s final.

Spain’s Verdasco won six straight games in the opening set on his way to a 6-2, 6-1 victory over Paul-Henri Mathieu.

The third-seeded Verdasco then took a 5-0 lead in the second before closing out the match in just over an hour at Pat Rafter Arena. He improved to 5-0 against Mathieu, reaching his eighth career ATP final and first on hard court.

In Sunday’s final, Verdasco will play eighth-seeded Stepanek, who beat Richard Gasquet 2-6, 6-2, 6-4 in the other semifinal.

Verdasco also won a spot in the doubles final, teaming with Germany’s Mischa Zverev to beat Australian pair Carsten Ball and Chris Guccione 6-4, 6-2.

In the other semifinal, French pair Marc Gicquel and Jo-Wilfried Tsonga beat Travis Parrott of the United States and Slovakia’s Filip Polasek 7-5, 6-7 (4), 10-7.

In the singles semis, Gasquet needed 10 minutes to hold serve in the opening game, going to deuce six times before taking a 1-0 lead. The Frenchman broke Stepanek three times and won the first set easily.

But the Czech player rallied and won four straight games in the second set to send the match to a decider. He broke Gasquet in the ninth game en route to his second win in as many head-to-head matches.

"The whole match, even when I lost the first set, was played to a high quality," Stepanek said.